All change!

Just when we all thought this year's rather underwhelming spring migration was over, within the last week, a nice juicy easterly wind, together with frequent rain showers and gloomy skies had arisen. Thank god!

Waders have been thin on the ground up until now, so it was cool to discover a Greenshank at the local Croughton Quarry on 23/05. Not a spectacular find you may think, however all things are relative and in an area greatly lacking in wader habitat, it was certainly pretty notable!



Next, on Thurday 24/05, a visit to the Grimsbury Res patch, on my lunchbreak proved worthwhile, with the discovery of 3 pukka summer plumaged Sanderling, sat along the western shoreline. They hung around for a while, before eventually flying off high north as the sun attempted to break through the cloud.











Friday (25/05) was a day off for me, seeing the Rolling Stones in the evening, in London. This meant a chance to give the patch a real bash for the morning at least.

I started early, about 06:45am I think in much heavier rain than I'd anticipated. Soon after, a Common Sandpiper dropped in, the first for a while. Then, at about 07:05am, 4 smashing adult Black Terns dropped in from the east. They hung around for around 25 minutes or so before heparting high NW. I was pleased to see some as the previous day every single patch of water except Grimsbury seemed to have one!





I decided to pop back home to dry off and get a trusty old McDonald's breakfast. I then returned to the patch for a little while longer with seemingly stuff happening. This yielded a further 2 Black Terns for 20 minutes or so. Other notables included 3 Ringed Plovers heading straight through, 2 brief Common Terns and a Little Ringed Plover. 

The actual highlight though was the sheer number of Swifts that has appeared: some 300 or possibly more, filling the sky with their screams, it was one hell of a sight and a very memorable scene. Spectacular in fact!





The rest of the late May Bank Holiday did produce a bit of sun in patches. On the Sunday (27/05) afternoon, there was a nice mix of sun and cloud, so I decided to head up the road to see my first Wood White butterflies of the year at nearby Bucknell Wood. I ended up doing a comprehensive count across as much of the wood as I could. It was flipping tiring but I was rewarded with a count of 101.